My top 4 takeaways from reading only self-pub books for #IndieApril

As part of #IndieApril, I decided to make a commitment to reading all self-published books. I made graphics, shared them around, encouraged others to get involved, and even ran an Indie Author spotlight on the RNA website. Now that the month is over, I thought I’d share what I learned.

1.        Trad snobs need to get with the programme.

When one of my fellow indie authors tried to get involved in her local bookfest, the organiser told her that they didn’t allow indie authors in because of quality issues. I would bet my house that this person has never actually read any indie books. When a popular trad author read one of my books, she said to me afterwards, “But there’s nothing wrong with it.” You see, she had the misconception that indie books were in some way inferior to trad.

But here’s the secret that people who read indie know: that’s bulllshit. Yes, there are some shitty self-pub books out there that I’ve DNFed (Did Not Finish, for the uninitiated). There are also some shitty trad books out there that I’ve DNFed. In fact, there are trad books that are getting great reviews that I’ve DNFed. It’s all about personal taste. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: how the book was published has nothing to do with the quality of the story. I had absolutely no problem finding five amazing indie books to read during the month of April. The only way you wouldn’t be able to find one is pure laziness.

2.        The Indie Community is so supportive…

Through a post on a thread for Indie Authors, I met an author from Florida who had written a psychological thriller. Her name was S Jennifer Paulson. We agreed to read each other’s books as part of Indie April. If we don't like the book, there is no pressure to review. Even so, in the message she sent me, she said, “I promise it’s not shit!”, which made me sad because what it said to me was that she’s come up against the same trad snobbery that I have (see point one). I read her book. It was wonderful. She wove her own experiences as both a journalist and a recovering alcohol abuser into the story, which gave it this wonderful feeling of verity. It wasn’t my usual genre, but I really enjoyed it.

To support her, I did an Instagram post, Facebook post, Twitter post, Goodreads review, and Amazon review (with picture!). We authors (trad and indie) appreciate every review we get, which is why we’re always begging for them. They help us sell our books. She did the same for me.

I then reviewed another book by an author who had been on my podcast a while ago: Rachel’s Butterflies. I did the same for her above. After I posted it, the author contacted me to say how she really needed that today as she was struggling to hit deadlines for her next book and was in a dip. This is what support looks like, as opposed to this…

3.        …Aside from a few indie authors who are a*seholes (but I’m sure this applies to trad, too).

I met another historical romance author through the same forum where I met Jennifer. We agreed to read each other’s books. Imagine my surprise when I went onto Goodreads to find she had posted a DNF review for SHOOTERS under a different name (I recognised the picture). Her parting line was: “Hard to understand how the book is getting so many five-star reviews...”

Now, it is absolutely fine for a reader not to like my book. A book cannot be all things to all people. However, to go out of her way to leave such a scathing review on a public site when we had met each other on a forum encouraging support is just crass. As our mamas used to say, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it all.

Trust me, I know there are authors who go and anonymously one-star their competitors’ books. But just a word to the wise: it’s not a good look and accomplishes nothing, except hurting someone’s feelings and making yourself look like a complete twat.

4.        Indie authors have more fun.

One thing that became clear to me as I read some fabulous indie books in April, was that Indie Authors have more fun.

Our stories are not restricted by the tastes of editors. I have seen many posts by trad authors who complain that, after rounds and rounds of edits of their manuscript, the story was tighter, but it also was no longer the original story they set out to tell.

I imagine that my series, The Photographers Trilogy, as I originally envisaged it would have been shot down by trad pub editors. They would have been looking for ‘the same, but different’ in every book—a phrase I have heard bandied about many times by trad friends. But what I envisaged was a true series where you need to start at the beginning book to really understand the full story. You wouldn’t start reading Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series at book five, would you?

True series like this in romance are like unicorns. But it’s what I wanted to do. My third book revisits the love story of the couple in book one, exploring the idea of the happily ever after. I believe that I can only do this because I am self-published.

We are allowing a select few people in publishing houses to curate the stories we read when it is generally accepted that they have no idea what they are looking for OR what will sell until it’s sold. It is literally gambling. My debut novel was turned down by many publishing houses because it was about weddings, and they already had one wedding-themed romance on their books—a very random thing that I had no control over. When would be the magic window in which this wouldn’t be the case? Answer: never. Wedding-themed books are the opposite of unicorns.

Finally, it has been proven in research by ALLi that stories by more diverse authors are killing it in self-publishing, books that trad pub would have turned down because they didn’t fit neatly in a pre-defined niche or the marketing team wasn’t sure how to market it.

Surely this is something we should all be supporting?

I’m now committed to reading more indie every month. In fact the first book I’ve started reading in May is the second book in one of the series I started in April. Check out my blog post on this topic for a few indie recs that I've enjoyed.

Julia Boggio is a multi-award-winning photographer turned multi-award winning author. She now writes romantic comedies based in the world of professional photography. You can purchase her books on Amazon or signed copies (UK) from her website.